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[Masaki_]

btw, that was a joke, im not even american

 

[ruttyboy]

Here's one for you, if our (UK) mini-9/11 had happened a day earlier, do you think we'd have called it 7/6 or 6/7?

I like to think we'd have gone with 6/7 but I have my doubts after the precedent set by 9/11...

 

[Wazzim]

In North America. In my country we list them as road/number. I have no idea how it's done in the rest of the world, but just like dates it's clearly not universally done one way.

I never even saw the number/road format, what's that for bs lol. Adapt to the world damn it.

 

[Natetan]

In North America. In my country we list them as road/number. I have no idea how it's done in the rest of the world, but just like dates it's clearly not universally done one way.

East asian addresses generally follow this format too, 'state', 'city', road, number. makes a lot of sense actually.

 

[Adamm]

I never even saw the number/road format, what's that for bs lol. Adapt to the world damn it.

Really?

So if some one says they live on 123 Fake Street you would think that sounds wrong?

 

[daviyoung]

Here's one for you, if our (UK) mini-9/11 had happened a day earlier, do you think we'd have called it 7/6 or 6/7?

7/6/5

 

[Drek]

A neat backwards justification that works if and only if all companies have a fiscal year that matches the calendar year (they don't - about 35% of companies in the US and more elsewhere don't, for a number of very good reasons...)

Sorry, still works man.

Just because the monthly order runs 04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,01,02,03 instead of 01-12 doesn't change the fact that within any given fiscal year you will only see the two digit notation for each month only once.

In fact, that is a key benefit to the MM/DD/YY system since a YY/DD/MM would trip up over an off-set fiscal year from the calendar year since sorting data would always give you calendar year first. With MM/DD/YY a quick sort brings 01,02,03 months to the top to be culled for the start of a new fiscal year, or for use during end of year processing.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Daters gonna date. I am used the the American way because I'm American.

 

[kadotsu]

I've always wondered, does the US use some DIN norms? I always had problems reading US publications that use US logical gates.

 

[Arozay]

9th of November, never forget

 

[Hari Seldon]

Clearly Europe is filled with nothing but catholic school nuns to worry about date formats so much. Either that or they have a zoloft shortage.

 

[Hitokage]

Sorry, still works man.

Just because the monthly order runs 04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,01,02,03 instead of 01-12 doesn't change the fact that within any given fiscal year you will only see the two digit notation for each month only once.

In fact, that is a key benefit to the MM/DD/YY system since a YY/DD/MM would trip up over an off-set fiscal year from the calendar year since sorting data would always give you calendar year first. With MM/DD/YY a quick sort brings 01,02,03 months to the top to be culled for the start of a new fiscal year, or for use during end of year processing.

I don't think this line of argument serves your position well. Mostly because no matter when a year break happens YY/MM still puts it in correct order and you can just treat it as a single unit anyway.

 

[strata8]

I've always thought that DD/MM/YYYY and num/street/city/country are used instead of YYYY/MM/DD and country/city/street/num because they make more sense relative to your current situation.

 

[Drek]

I'd just like to point out the irony of this post: addresses are listed as number/road, not road/number. Smallest to largest. Though obviously if you were looking for a place you would think about the address backwards.

There is no justification for MM/DD unless the year precedes it. Pick ascending or descending and leave it at that.

What intrinsic value does number/road offer versus road/number though? This isn't a matter of just having uniformity in scaling, its a matter of applicability.

Its number/road because the inherent assumption is that you can find your way to X road, so your primary concern is the number on that road.

Much like how with MM/DD/YY the inherent assumption is that you know the year you're working with so the information is given in the format that provides the clearest context. MM/DD. Much like how we read time in descending order since that gives it the clearest context.

I don't think this line of argument serves your position well.

Why.

 

[Tathanen]

1. As mentioned, American-style goes in order of numerical capacity. 12->31->XXXX. Climbing complexity.

2. American-style also goes in order of contextual relevance. If you say a day first, it's meaningless. "12." 12 what? You don't even know you're saying a date yet. Month first provides context, the date narrows. The year further narrows, if relevant, but the first two are often enough.

This is an argument that can't be as easily won as Metric. If you eliminate "I'm more used to this one than that one," you're reduced to points like these. I'd say my #1 above cancels out the "climbing specificity" point held by DD/MM/YYYY, and then we're left with #2. So American-style is +1 for usability.

YYYY/MM/DD is great for archival purposes (and birthdays), true, but it's less relevant in day-to-day affairs, as it places what is often the least relevant, and often implied, figure first.

 

[Lebron]

The future is the Chinese way anyway. Which is just a flip from the true, American, way. I can deal with that.

 

[Dead Man]

Seriously, can anyone explain the Fourth of July thing if Americans use 7/4 for that date?

1. As mentioned, American-style goes in order of numerical capacity. 12->31->XXXX. Climbing complexity.

2. American-style also goes in order of contextual relevance. If you say a day first, it's meaningless. "12." 12 what? You don't even know you're saying a date yet. Month first provides context, the date narrows. The year further narrows, if relevant, but the first two are often enough.

This is an argument that can't be as easily won as Metric. If you eliminate "I'm more used to this one than that one," you're reduced to points like these. I'd say my #1 above cancels out the "climbing specificity" point held by DD/MM/YYYY, and then we're left with #2. So American-style is +1 for usability.

YYYY/MM/DD is great for archival purposes (and birthdays), true, but it's less relevant in day-to-day affairs, as it places what is often the least relevant, and often implied, figure first.

1. Okay. Thin, but okay.

2. Nah, just what you are used to. The second number will always add context to the first.

 

[hteng]

4th of july baby! that sounds better

 

[lunarworks]

"Month Day, Year" works for me.

MM/DD/YY doesn't.

DD/MM/YY does.

The whole thing bugs me. A food expiration date of "09/10/11" can have three different meanings.

 

[Solo]

When I say it, I say "September 26th, 2011" ie the US way, but when I write it, I write "26/09/2011". A bit of column A, a bit of column B.

I'm Canadian, for reference.

 

[Drek]

Seriously, can anyone explain the Fourth of July thing if Americans use 7/4 for that date?


1. Okay. Thin, but okay.

2. Nah, just what you are used to. The second number will always add context to the first.

Date "of" Month is generally used in a more formal context. Since that is the day Americans celebrate casting off the shackles of an imperialist tyrant it is referenced in a formal context.

 

[Adamm]

If you say a day first, it's meaningless. "12." 12 what? You don't even know you're saying a date yet. Month first provides context, the date narrows. The year further narrows, if relevant, but the first two are often enough.

Under what circumstances would you just say 12? you would say 12th or 12/03/09

Alot of months wont make sense either if you say them by themselves

You: April
April: Yes?
You: I was talking about the month
April: March!
You: March where?
April: .....

 

[crazy monkey]

Well who would've thought, huh?

once again CANADA is superior. Also DMY guy

 

[crazygambit]

Really?

So if some one says they live on 123 Fake Street you would think that sounds wrong?

If they say it in my country? Yes.

 

[Cipherr]

You read the thread.

Did he really? Because looking at his response, he very well could have replied without reading anything but the title, and he still would have been spot on.

Stupid thread.

 

[LQX]

When was the last time any of you looked at calender to see what year it is? The year should always be the last as its the most apparent and obvious. Month and day is what 99.9% of us look on a calender for so the US has it perfectly laid out.

 

[Kenka]

What the hell, Afghanistan has no date format standard ?

edit : wait, Bangladesh either ?!

 

[Hari Seldon]

once again CANADA is superior. Also DMY guy

Pffft, Belize has our backs. You have none!

 

[Hieberrr]

Fucking Canada... I get so confused here. I try to use the full date whenever I can.

E.g., September 26, 2011

 

[Tathanen]

Under what circumstances would you just say 12? you would say 12th or 12/03/09

Alot of months wont make sense either if you say them by themselves

You: April
April: Yes?
You: I was talking about the month
April: March!
You: March where?
April: .....

What if I'm talking to my good friend Twelve, hmmmmmmm?

I'd also argue that my #1 from before is nice in sheer aesthetics. You have a much higher percentage of climbing dates that way, small, larger, largest. I'm always unsettled by the EU date format due to its chasm in the middle. 28, way down to 2, then way back up to 98? GOODNESS.

 

[Hitokage]

As it happens, people are arbitrary. People were also the ones using dates until quite recently when we started having to consider a computer's needs too. Computers love YYYY/MM/DD, and when we work with computers using this makes our lives easier by extension. However, take computers out of the picture and people are quite happy using whatever system they are used to.

Even if it's backwards like DD/MM.

 

[Always-honest]

What about date?

Why do Americans use month/day/year? It doesn't make any sense.

It should be in order. Days are first, then months, then years. It is the only logical way. You guys only create confusion.

Ofcourse it should. Any other way is just fucking stupid. Even if languages differ.

 

[jorma]

What the hell, Afghanistan has no date format standard ?

So when they say 9/11 they might mean 11/9? Confusing indeed

 

[Sylver]

American do rare things.
They call 1.000.000.000 as Billion and european journalist are worse because they mix american numbeers with european numbers.
These days with macroeconomic news is pretty fun read stupid journalists.

 

[Adamm]

American do rare things.
They call 1.000.000.000 as billion and European journalist are worse because the mix american numbeers with european numbers.

Dont get started on that....please

 

[Emitan]

NeoGAF: We'll argue about anything

 

[CornBurrito]

Well... in Spanish we say the day first, then the month. But still, it doesn't make sense the way you guys write the dates. It isn't following any logical order.

Smallest range to largest range.

1-12, 1-31, -XXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX

 

[Adamm]

NeoGAF: We'll argue about anything

No we wont!

 

[Gacha-pin]

We usually drop year when we say date, so Y/M/D and M/D/Y are in the same league.

 

[Sharp]

YYYY-MM-DD is the ISO standard, I believe. Its greatest advantages are (1) it sorts correctly alphabetically, and (2) it's impossible to confuse with the other two commonly used variants.

 

[Mecha_Infantry]

ITT: Americans expose their lack of correctness with misspelling/pronunciation "maths", their lack of correct dating of days and general English language debauchery

 

[lunarworks]

once again CANADA is superior. Also DMY guy

As I said, it can make expiration dates really fucking confusing. If all the numbers are under 12, it leaves three different possibilities.

 

[Zeppu]

You do know that is what MDY effectively is right?

For all filing purposes years are wide enough ranges with so little change in the variable that it borders on filler. You need it there but 99% of all filing, data sorting, etc. for a business is focused within that year as the rest has already been resolved in the previous year.

So the optimal YYYY/MM/DD system is used, but the YYYY is shifted to the end to speed day to day operations.

Far superior method of handling things, especially if you're sorting data on a computer without ideal date formatting and instead just textual hyphens, backslashes, etc.. Then standard sort operations get you a monthly split instead of giving you all things from the first day of every month, the second day of every month, etc..

DMY is a completely useless format that pushes all the most relevant data to the back end of the notation.

You don't read time seconds, minutes, hours do you? Nope, because that'd be stupid and nonsensical. You read hours, minutes, seconds. The optimal order to put each piece of information in its appropriate context. But year changes at a low enough frequency where giving in first priority makes it feel like filler in day to day life. Instead appending it to the end puts the most relevant information (two digit month and last two digits of the year) on the ends and easiest to pick out quickly.

So your argument is that if you filter by year, thus rendering the YYYY completely insignificant, then it makes sense to use MM/DD. My argument is that if I want to display a whole date, which I sometimes goddamn want to do, I want them to all be in the correct either going from the most significant to least significant or vice versa.

I read hours, minutes, seconds. That's the optimal order, correct. By your argument, if I'm dealing with stuff that occurs in the second time frame (number of hits I get on a website(?)) I should be using MM:SS:HH because HH moves at almost ten times lower the frequency, 3600 seconds in 1 hr vs 365 days in 1 day.

 

[Hilbert]

Yeah, what's up with that?

We aren't picky bastards here in america, we aren't always looking for a way to bash someone else just because the way they say 4th of july isn't exactly like how they say May 23rd.

ITT: Americans expose their lack of correctness with misspelling/pronunciation "maths", their lack of correct dating of days and general English language debauchery

This sort of smugness does get on my nerves, especially since it is incorrect:
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2007/03/maths.html

 

[Kenka]

So when they say 9/11 they might mean 11/9? Confusing indeed

Somebody else came with the November, 9th joke as well. Come on, how can Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Burma and Laos have no date standard ? I know they aren't rich countries by any mean but still...

 

[Adamm]

Somebody else came with the November, 9th joke as well. Come on, how can Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Burma and Laos have no fucking date standard ? Wtf.

They probably just dont have the data for it

 

[Hieberrr]

You know what really messes with my head? I used to live in Germany as a kid (born and raised there until I was 8) and we learned about monetary values and whatever... but when I came here (to Canada), we learned to do it another way. Now when I watch German soccer games, they display money on the ads as 3,98€.... why is the comma there?! That messes with everything I've learned about math!

 

[Data West]

Why do people celebrate a new year? It's just another 365 days.
Why do people celebrate birthdays? It's just another year of living.
It's just something that's been done so long in a region, it's become second nature. Why do you feel like second guessing somewhere you don't live? I don't go 'Derr why do English people call chips, biscuits?' It's not always about what's first. A lot of the time, it's just because that's what you grew up around. You've got no right to question another society on something that's not harming anyone else.

 

[Tathanen]

ITT: Americans expose their lack of correctness with misspelling/pronunciation "maths", their lack of correct dating of days and general English language debauchery

This is like saying "cultures that aren't mine are wrong." Date styling and unit measurement are cultural relics like anything else. They're the functional equivalent of regional dialects. We can argue functional superiority, but we certainly can't argue "correctness."

 

[daviyoung]

You know what really messes with my head? I used to live in Germany as a kid (born and raised there until I was 8) and we learned about monetary values and whatever... but when I came here (to Canada), we learned to do it another way. Now when I watch German soccer games, they display money on the ads as 3,98€.... why is the comma there?! That messes with everything I've learned about math!

Sometimes a , is used where a . should be. But putting the currency on the end is terrible.